Wahine coach makes right moves

STOCKTON - The Pacific women's volleyball team let another one slip away on Friday night in a match that was a microcosm of its Big West Conference season.

Jagdip Dhillon

STOCKTON - The Pacific women's volleyball team let another one slip away on Friday night in a match that was a microcosm of its Big West Conference season.

The Tigers slammed the door on their postseason hopes for 2012 by blowing a lead in No. 7 Hawaii's 25-16, 25-27, 22-25, 25-16, 15-7 victory before 1,022 fans at Spanos Center.

There were plenty of fans wearing green in the crowd, and Hawaii gave its faithful plenty to cheer about in the final two games. The Tigers (20-9, 8-8 Big West Conference) also lost to the Wahine in five sets in Honolulu last month. It was Pacific's nation-leading 14th match to go five games and it fell to 9-5, with all five losses coming in conference play.

Coach Dave Shoji, in his 38th season at Hawaii, won his 1,099th career game as his team remained perfect in its return to the Big West this season.

"We started strong and had a flat period of time where we couldn't do anything right," Shoji said. "Then we started blocking better, especially against their outsides."

Pacific coach Greg Gibbons and Shoji kept tweaking their lineups throughout the match, and Hawaii found the right one down the stretch.

"We were trying to find matchups we wanted, and then Shoji showed why he's one of the best coaches out there, because he flipped his lineup," Gibbons said. "It made them stronger and Emily Hartong, who I think is the best player in the conference, just started hitting the ball over the place."

Hartong finished with 25 kills and 16 digs, and Jane Croson had 18 kills and Jade Vorster had 13 for Hawaii (23-2, 15-0).

"I was extremely impressed with our effort," Gibbons said. "We haven't lost any matches this season because of a lack of effort and I told them this will pay back to them at some point."

Gibbons attributed Pacific's slow start in the match on his changing to a 6-2 lineup that featured Clancy and freshman setter Kimmy Whitson playing together. Gibbons quickly changed back after Hawaii hammered them in the first game and the Tigers got it going in the middle of the match.

For Shoji, it was the 62nd time he coached against Pacific (37-25), and it was his first trip to Stockton since 2001. Hawaii won the national championship on this floor in 1982 and suffered what Shoji called his worst career defeat in a 1989 regional final to Long Beach State.

"The building has a lot of memories, good and bad," Shoji said. "My players couldn't believe how much history the program had here. It was really nice to be in Spanos Center again."